Elsewhere

Statement

I seek in my art to force a deeper explanation of reality and to facilitate a connection with a larger human experience. The artwork included in the exhibition Elsewhere encompasses drawing, collage, books and sculpture, and was created during an 11 week artist residency in Berlin Germany in the fall of 2012. The artwork was influenced by my experience studying artifacts from ancient times to the present, as well as by my personal experiences and emotions while in Berlin. I believe even the smallest artifact can evoke the most powerful feelings, and I draw inspiration from objects and images, both historical and contemporary, that have the potential to reflect beyond themselves. Having access to the renowned museum collections in Berlin as well as to objects found in the everyday landscape had a deep influence on my art.

Throughout my artistic career I have honed my technical skills and sensitivity to materials, and I am currently exploring the way various materials affect the conceptual intent and impact of each piece. The pieces included in the Elsewhere exhibition combine paper and sculpted ceramic components, or use paper in some way. The source materials for elements include old German books, documentary photographs of the circus, party ephemera, figurative sculptures from antiquity, and mass­produced figurines of the industrial era. The materials are altered, manipulated, and combined in a process that becomes an obvious and integral part of the completed piece. The paper introduces an element of fragility, while also referring to art historical uses of “found” objects and materials by artists associated with Dada and Surrealism. I was equally interested in using paper sculpturally, in a naïve and childlike way that complements and contrasts with the ceramic elements, which are sculpted and fired using a variety of methods. In the books Struasse, Kinder and Berlin I capture, isolate and/or manipulate the original images and then use photography techniques to reproduce the elements in a book. At the heart of these works is the potential of each material to evoke a different emotional response, on a full spectrum of tensions and resonances.